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You could record an Action to set up your document. I just tested to see if the Action could handle loading brushes and swatches, and it could.

If you've never used the Actions palette, it's the button that looks like a VCR's "play" button. Click the "new" icon, give your Action a name, then click "Record." Everything you do in the document from that point will be recorded by the Action. When you're done setting it up, click the Stop button in the Actions Palette.

To test it, start a new document, select your new Action, and hit the "Play" button. It should set up your document just like you did while recording it.

sorry didn't mean to be misleading... by template file I mean just a file that has the layers already set-up. For isntance I have a series of maps that all have several text layers, then a blue reveal layer, a rock layer that has bevel and shadows already applied to that layer, then a grid layer.

That file is saved as DungeonMapBase and when I want to make a map in that style I open it, save as whatever, import a new outline from illustrator and everything is in place.